Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Oberweis burned on illegal immigration issue

It was a poor choice of issues, illegal immigration, for Obererwies to use in the 2004 senate campaign. Yesterday, that choice looked even more ill-advised.

From the Daily Herald:

Gubernatorial candidate Jim Oberweis was accused Tuesday of talking out of both sides of his mouth — railing against illegal immigration while having his Arlington Heights, Hoffman Estates and Schaumburg stores cleaned at subminimum wage by those same illegal immigrants.

“He says that we should not be here, but then he hires us, abuses us and gets rich off our work,” said Rosa Ramirez, 41, at a press conference put on by Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.

Ramirez was referring to a campaign advertisement Oberweis aired in the 2004 campaign for U.S. Senate in which he said he would move to stem the tide of 10,000 illegal immigrants entering the country each day. Oberweis has not made immigration reform a part of his gubernatorial campaign.

Ramirez and Jorge Ibarra, 35, said an Oberweis subcontractor stiffed them in May out of promised pay of $700 a month each for about 100 hours of work each and instead gave her and Ibarra just $350 each or $3.50 an hour, well below the federal minimum wage of $5.15 an hour and Illinois’ minimum wage of $6.50.